Palm Desert Caregiver Pleads Not Guilty To Killing Elderly Man

PALM DESERT, CA -- A worker at a La Quinta residential-care facility on Monday pleaded not guilty to murder and torture charges stemming from the death of a patient whose body was found in a trash bin outside the facility.

The murder charge against Cristina Noelle Canimo, 32, of Palm Desert, includes a special circumstance allegation of inflicting torture during the commission of a murder, making her eligible for the death penalty.

Prosecutors allege she used a knife, box cutter, screwdriver and a hammer in the crime. The defendant remains housed in the Indio jail without bail. Canimo's felony settlement conference scheduled for Dec. 30 at the Larson Justice Center in Indio.

Canimo was taken into custody at 3 a.m. on Nov. 22, the day after the man's body was found in a trash bin inside a gated community in the 43500 block of east Parkway Esplanade, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

The victim was later identified as Ronald Clarke, 87, who lived at the same residential care facility where Canimo worked and where Clarke's body was found, sheriff's officials said.

A motive for the killing remains a mystery.

The name of the board-and-care facility has not been officially released, but The Desert Sun reported that it is Sunbrook Residential Care at 43-574 E. Parkway Esplanade. Sunbrook has been the subject of several evaluation and complaint investigation reports since 2015, the newspaper reported.

City News Service contributed to this report.